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abtained the descendible title of baronet, and has since been known by that. As to the result of the cause, if I am not deceived, the will was finally established. But be that as it will, and let the personal merit of those judges be what it may, it affects not my argument. The system under which they acted; the barbarous code with which they were familiar, was enough to taint their judgement. No judge, no legislator, historian, poet or philosopher, but what has been tinctured, with the follies or superstitions of his age. Of this, one memorable instance may suffice. Sir Matthew Hale was virtuous, wise, and learned; the advocate of toleration, the enemy of cruelty. The revolutionary storms that shook the throne of monarchs, could not move him. Wealth could not corrupt, nor power intimidate him. When we find his great and philosophic mind, vilely enthralled in the grossest superstition of his time; treating of witchcraft, in the first and second degree, laying down quaint and specious rules, for the detection and conviction of those victims of barbarous folly, straining the plain rules of evidence, to meet these imaginary crimes, and because the practices of witches with the devil, and of conjurors with evil spirits, were secret and dangerous, holding that therefore, witches might be convicted without full proof. After this, may we not well suspect those Irish judges to have imbibed the poison of their cruel code, and to have eaten of the insane root that taketh the reason prisoner. And as a further lesson of circumspection, let us not forget, that after that ever memora ble frenzy, which in a neighbouring state, hurled to destruction, so many innocent victims, when the actors in those bloody tragedies returned to their senses, over

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whelmed with shame and with confusion, their apology was, that they had been deluded by the writings of Glanvill, Hale and Baxter. What I now relate is history, that strange as it may seem, cannot be disputed, so dangerous it is to give the reigns to cruel prejudices. At that time no eloquence could dissuade; no advocate had courage to oppose the torrent. The trembling wretch overawed by the frown of the magistrate, the fear of the law, and the dread of death, was no sooner denounced than he confessed; and many accusing themselves were received into favor as penitent witches or wizards, and used to convict others less guilty, but not so politic. At that epoch the peaceful society of Friends was thought little less dangerous, and thus did those who fled from persecution in England, become through ignorance most intolerant persecutors in America. Such is the nature of that fiendlike spirit, which it requires but a moment to raise and centuries to lay. Thank heaven it is laid in this land, and I trust forever. The best proof of which is, that we can discuss this question, in peace and charity without stirring one angry passion, or one malignant feeling. For there is no man on this side the Atlantic, that does not regard these errors of past times, as examples to be shunned, not imitated; nor should I revive their memory, but for that purpose. It seems indeed, as if providence had decreed this land, to be the grave of persecution, and the cradle of tolerance. The illustrious Penn, was imprisoned for his dangerous opinions in England; he came to America, and being invested with legislative authority, founded a code upon the principles of pure and unequivocating toleration. The storms of the revolution scattered back

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the precious seeds, and the British empire itself, after a long lapse of years, received practical lessons of that wisdom, it had banished from its shores. Even in Ireland the cheering ray pierced the gloomy night of oppression the sympathetic charm awaked the sleeping genius of a reanimated people, and raised up those champions of civil and religious rights, within and without the walls of parliament, whose splendid eloquence, showed the native measure of many a thousand souls that bondage had degraded. How far that glorious spirit has since sunk into subjection; how far the unceasing workings of corruption and untoward events have again subdued the generous feelings of that season, I cannot, dare not say ; but with respect to catholic persecution, it received its death blow from the American revolution, and the constitution of the free states that compose this great commonwealth. It might be amusing and instructive too, to trace the progress of catholic emancipation, did our time admit of it. To see in the first trembling supplica tions of the abject petitioner for rights, that slaves would scorn to ask, the horrible relation of the oppressor and the oppressed. To be allowed to swear allegiance and fidelity, was granted with reluctance, as a too generous boon. To disclaim upon oath, charges of which no man was guilty, was an indulgence almost too great to ask for. That the son should no longer by the mere act of conforming to another church, be free to violate the order of nature and disinherit his own father, was a mighty concession. To hold a lease for years, or take by devise he was a bold projector that dared to ask for that. To be a school-master, or a school-master's assistant, was too much to expect. To "commit matri

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mony” with impunity, was against all due subordination. At length a new and more auspicious era came, et magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo.

And now the patriot, soaring on the wings of en, thusiasm, recommends a gradual emancipation, in the generous hope that the catholics would in the course o some indefinite period, or in some undetermined series of succeeding generations, inherit a capacity to take free. dom. But still to have a gun to scare the crows, a steeple or a bell, or a vote at a vestry, was too dangerous a confidence. To be a juror or a constable, an attorney or a barrister, or to hold any station, civil or military, was not yet to be hoped or looked for. The thing had already gone too far. The alarm was rung. Protestant corporations, grand juries, committees and hired presses, poured forth their malignant ribaldry. The truth was this. The hour of danger was passed by, and with it the season of concession was gone. Then came the organized banditti. Then the no popery and peep of day men. Then the recall of faithless promises. And that government that refused to tolerate catholics, tolerated, instigated and indemnified a faction, whose deeds will never be forgotten. Then came hangings, half hangings, conflagrations, plunder and torture. Rape, murder and indemnity went hand in hand. And then it was, that a spectacle new and appalling, for the first time, presented itself; and presbyterian, churchman, and catholic were seen to ascend the same scaffold, and die in the cause of an indissoluble union. The great x cause of human emancipation in spite of events, has still proceeded, and were the question that we are now debating, given against us, we might find to our astonisment,

that on that very hour when an American tribunal had pronounced against the freedom of the catholic faith, the united parliament of Britain and Ireland had pronounced it free.

I am aware that the words I have spoken touching the penal laws of Ireland, must seem strange to many. It would be too cold and tedious to quote them from the statute book one by one, and perhaps too, foreign to the point. I have no principle to establish but this, that we should never look to Ireland for a precedent, where the rights of catholics were concerned. If what I have said be true, I think it is enough. And to shew that I have not exaggerated, I shall now refer to some of the expressions of the great Edmund Burke, upon the same subject. In the year 1782, when a bill for the relief of the Roman catholics was proposed by Mr. Gardner a member of the Irish house of commons, Mr. Burke in answer to a noble peer who had consulted him, used these words :

"To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less, than a renewal act of universal, unmitigated, indispensable, exceptionless disqualification." Yet this of which he spoke, was a bill for the relief of the Roman catholics. If such was the character of the relief intended by their advocates, what must be the condition from which they sought relief?

Speaking of Mr. Hutchinson, then provost of the university, and a man distinguished in the Irish parlia ment and councils, who had proposed a few sizerships in Trinity College for the education of the catholic clergymen, Mr. Burke uses these emphatic terms: "Mr. Hutchinson certainly meant well; but coming

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